Favorite Foto Friday (#6)

Ok, so this isn't my photo. I know.

But, it has a great story.

A few weeks back, I was preaching on Isaiah and the lion and the lamb.... wondering if they could ever lie down together. I showed the children this painting called The Peaceable Kingdom and asked them what looked odd to them. They quickly pointed out that babies were hanging out with lions and no one looked scared. Then I had them tell me what their perfect world would look like and we drew a picture with all sorts of great things. Later in the worship service during prayer requests, someone pointed out that a rainbow had formed over the two pictures by light streaming through the stained glass at that exact moment. How amazing is that? God spoke to us that morning saying that what God has said is indeed possible. Better than any photo I could ever take.

Making Cookies

Noah continues to be totally enamored by all animals. His day always includes imitating several of his favorite animals -- always elephants, usually tigers and bears. We spend our mornings looking for bunnies in the yard and our afternoons spotting lady bugs in the garden.

The other day I dropped Noah off at daycare and he found a dinosaur puppet and put it on his hand and yelled ROOOOOAAAARRRRR at the top of his lungs. The other two year olds ran to the other side of the room pretending to hide from the big dinosaur. He continued to do this every time one of them dared to move. I stared in awe at the power he had over them!!! It was all in good fun but he did a great dinosaur impression!

Nana recently bought him Dino pajamas and then I saw a dino cookie cutter. Noah and I made our first cookies together. He kept saying, "Mommy hold handle" when I would stop stirring. It was very cute. We let him pour sprinkles on them which meant that we went through a bottle in two shakes.

The finished product was awesome.

Arden's Celebration

On this rainy Saturday morning hundreds and hundreds of people gathered to tell the story of a brave little girl who went to play in a new kingdom, one where she didn't have to have any more medicines and doctors and needles.  Princess Arden was remembered as a valiant and intelligent child who mesmerized all of her family and friends.  Neuroblastoma was her demon, a stomach cancer, and in 10 short months, the demon took over and took control.  Today we praised Christ for her incredible life and for God's great love and joy for each one of his creations.  Today Arden dances and sings and plays again.  

Hug your loved ones, tight.  

Icelandic Thoughts

Ok, are you sick of Iceland yet?

I was putting some things away today and I thought about a few things I noticed about our trip:

1. Everyone there eats lots of black licorice in all forms which makes me love the country more than most. YUM! Chocolate covered black licorice!
2. They have the BEST yogurt I have ever had and it is called skir. It has 98 calories, no fat, and is 3X the size of our yogurts.
3. The swimming culture was great. There were AWESOME pools everywhere and they all had water-slides and hot tubs. They all had geothermal heat and are open year round. Wonderful!
4. I was reading about Iceland before I left and one thing I found to be so true was that the terrain is so rough... volcanic and yet sooooo beautiful and this comes out so clearly in the culture. People are rough and beautiful, the art is is the same, the whole culture mimics the landscape. Interesting thought.


That's all. We give our best thanks and gratitude to Len and Sandra for going above and beyond in all things to make this a wonderful trip. They really couldn't have been better hosts and we are so thankful!!!!!!

Favorite Foto Friday (#5)

I had to pick an Icelandic photo for this week. I love this picture, mostly for the lone duck who seems to be the quiet observer of the scene, as if the duck is looking at it like I am. Or as if the duck is God's signature in the corner of the painting.

I like it also because the houses here along the pond reminded me of the houses on Boathouse row in Philly. I thought it was so appropriate that Len and Sandra had a similar landscape to what they had when they lived here... some sort of connection between their two cities.

Iceland, Day 7

Thought it was our last day, we packed in as much as we could. We got up, packed up our stuff and headed in the direction of the airport to one of the best sites yet: The Blue Lagoon. I had heard about it but I never really knew what it was and boy was I surprised! You see, there are all these volcanoes in Iceland and though they don't pose a huge threat, they heat the ground under Iceland. So, there is lots of energy stored in the ground. That is where all the hot springs and geysers come from. So the Blue Lagoon is an area of the country where they harnessed the power of the heated water to create a power plant. The water surrounding the power plant is heated geothermally by the earty and it is awesome!! It is all natural and yet still bright blue. You step in the blue lagoon and there is sand and rock on your feet. Some sections were sooo hot, up to 100 degrees celsius and other sections had mud bottoms. People would pick up the mud and put it all over their skin because of the healing power of this water and mud. This is stuff that people pay big money for in salons and spas and in Iceland it is natural.


We spent a long time in the blue lagoon and loved every minute of it!

Len and Sandra met us there and we all had lunch together before we finally had to head off to the airport.



The way home was much better than the way there. Noah didn't sleep but he played nicely and watched Happy Feet while we flew.

When we finally got on the ground in NYC we exited the plane and were greeted by an audio loudspeaker message "Welcome to America, do not speak to strangers who might be offering you a ride. You could be in danger." We grinned at the incredible difference between the simplicity and nature of the place we had just left and the complexity and fear of the place we live.

Iceland, Day 6

We got up early Sunday morning to head to church. Len and Sandra attend the main church in the city called Hallgrimskirka. Almost all of Iceland is Lutheran and so even though the service is in Icelandic, the format is exactly the same as the Lutheran liturgy. The church was full and had lots of children. It was so wonderful to be a part of their worship service. Of course, Noah didn't like sitting still so after a while he and Paul went outside and jumped off of rocks.

We took a quick trip up the tower of the church and saw the view of the city from above.


After church we got Icelandic Hot Dogs (the standard is loaded with fried onions, hollandaise, honey mustard and ketchup) from the famous stand where Bill Clinton used to get his hot dogs.


Then we headed back to the hotel so Noah could grab a nap.

Len and Sandra were so happy to have us in Iceland that they graciously threw a party for us to meet Sandra's family. It was a fantastic afternoon gathering. Noah didn't like being still so he spent his afternoon throwing ice off the balcony and moving stools around the house.


During the party we took a look outside to see an Icelandic norm... rainbows!


Finally we put on a movie and he watched Ice Age with his Icelandic relatives.



We were so grateful for the wonderful party and we just sat and talked all afternoon.